Including today, I have only 5 practice sessions before I skate my test. That's not a lot! Because time is limited, I really wanted to slow things down today to make sure I'm skating with proper form and technique.
Off Ice warm-upz - First of all, why the hell is it snowing outside?! It's almost June, dammit! So, I walked quickly from my car to the entrance of the rink (it's not a short walk) and almost ate it on a slippery bit of sidewalk. Cool. So, I walked more slowly even though I knew my hair would get wet and then refreeze inside the rink. Pneumonia > broken bones :) Once inside, I walked two laps, ran one, stretched, and finished off the rest of my squats for the day (day 21 = 180 squats!). One of the unexpected benefits of this stupid squats challenge is that my bad ankle is starting to feel a bit more flexible so, when I do my dorsiflexion stretches before hitting the ice, my ankle feels a bit more loose. That's nice.
On Ice warm-upz - Laps, edges, and a ton of Circle 8s.
Movez - Ooooh, I spent so much time on these! Since I did a bunch of Circle 8s (or is it Circles 8?) during my warm up, I didn't include them here. I started with Power Perimeter Stroking making sure to pay attention to the axis. My lobes felt smaller but they were true to the axis. Next up were the Power 3 turns. Before I ran them, though, I just did some RFO 3 turns on one of the hockey circles since I tend to skid on them when I do them in the pattern. I think this is also a contributing factor to my bad side being less powerful. Once that was done, I ran the whole thing several times making sure to increase power throughout the end pattern so I have more speed going into my bad side. On all of the patterns I did, I was able to get 3 and 3. Progress! BX-BO Edges were next and those are feeling really good now that I am paying more attention to the axis and that little push right before the BO edge. Finally, Five Step Mohawks. I finished off my lobes, tried my best to keep my feet together during the mohawks, and focused on extension. I think these are okay enough.
Jumpz & Spinz - Even though my test is quickly approaching, I don't want to neglect the other stuff. So, my last 20 minutes was evenly split between jumps & spins and the free skate program. Since my ankle was feeling really strong today, I did a bunch of sit spins. I felt like I got a bit lower today so I took some video. It was lower but just ever so slightly. These little gains will add up over time so I was determined not to get too discouraged. Camels were a straight disaster today so I moved on to backspins. I wasn't able to cross my leg at all so these are still flamingo'd. I'm still getting 5-6 revs on them so, again, I'm trying not to beat myself up over it. It's frustrating though. I've been working on these for too long for them to look like this. Finally, attitude spins. These were acceptable today! I had a few that were actually centered! What?! I ran through all of my jumps (except the flip because I forgot) and, once these were comfortable, I started working on the program.
Programz - I feel like I made some progress on this! I'm still doing things very slowly hoping that speed will naturally increase over time the more confident and secure I feel with the new choreography. I'm starting to get a feel for where everything should go. Also, an unexpected benefit to practicing this is that I'm doing a lot of spirals. I used to hate working on spirals but now I do them without thinking and they don't feel scary anymore. This will get there but it's slow going. Moving jumps around and adding additional footwork to this thing makes me feel like I'm starting from scratch. But, I'm determined to make it great :)
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